Gravely 40" wing mower restoration

[pmsmechanic]

The nicest cutting longest lasting cut off saw blades that I have used are from NAPA. "Long life for light duty work"

I don't think it's the saw you are using. Some types of cut off saw blades just burn the work and harden it untill the saw just won't ge through.

 

[daugen]

my new diamond edge saw blade made much easier work of the regular steel but the hardened steel was still difficult to get through.
There are several high stress places I need the stronger steel though.
I got two more pieces cut today, three more to cut, then I start to weld. After much practice...

 

[3930dave]

Nice fab work d, she'll be a beaut when you are done.

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

Been a while and I have a bit to report.
Spindles back all nice and rebuilt. Had an issue with pulley lining up properly with splines and then it got stuck three quarters of the way down....uh oh. By the time I
got it carefully pulled out with a gear puller, I had loosened one of the bearings. Groan. Now what, well nothing ventured so the spindle goes on the vise, and I ever so carefully tap tapped around and around the bearing case and it slid right back to where it should be. I had another spindle nearby, basically make this one look like that one, and that worked quite nicely.
Have not fixed the spline issue but will sure lube things up better next time. I'm sure I can beat on it to get it down but that's really sabotaging the next guy who tries to get it off.
Could not find any bent splines at all, need to take a much close look, very fine splines. And all no longer made, no replacement parts, so I have to make
what I have work.

What has been successful is finishing the cutting of all the sheet metal and structural metal, the latter to fab a heavy duty hanger bracket for the mower frame. Even with a new diamond wheel I thought I would never finish cutting through that thick steel, and some was hardened and that stuff was a bear.
The hardest part will be the angled section in the rear that is just rotted out and bent underneath. I have cut the metal, but now I need to straighten up
what's underneath so what goes over will not have pockets in between.

I did take off the upper reinforcing plate, to then clean out thirty plus years of dirt, grease and glop wedged in between, the whole length of the almost three foot piece. The deck is only of average thickness; the reinforcing plate had zero cracks. The mower deck has many. I'm going to take some close up pics and post them in the welding forum for advice. I may be putting a reinforcing plate down on top of some of these cracks but not going to leave them like that... Learning how to weld is all part of this project, which of course slows it down. But the hardest part is done. Now to put a number of hours in grinding all the welding areas to bare metal, plus sand down the entire top. Have not looked underneath very much, unlikely I will do anything there. This machine will never be treated as harshly as it was in the past...I'm not prepping it for commercial service, though I sure am making one corner of the deck stronger than it was originally. So it won't be perfectly original; can't help that with my skills and its condition.

 

[daugen]

I cut and I ground, I cut and I ground, and got a lot done.
Cut the excess metal off that one strut, geez that was a long project, fought me every tenth of an inch.
Tried to come through the corners, could not get that extra layer of steel off. So I did it the slow hard way with a diamond
saw. Now ready for some finish grinding on a wheel and that strut will be ready to weld.

ground a lot of paint and rust off the mower deck; one more day of prep, using a wire brush on everything,
and then I think I can start welding. With help...

 

[3930dave]

I cut and I ground, I cut and I ground, and got a lot done.
Cut the excess metal off that one strut, geez that was a long project, fought me every tenth of an inch.
Tried to come through the corners, could not get that extra layer of steel off. So I did it the slow hard way with a diamond
saw. Now ready for some finish grinding on a wheel and that strut will be ready to weld.

ground a lot of paint and rust off the mower deck; one more day of prep, using a wire brush on everything,
and then I think I can start welding. With help...

Looking solid d.

I really like the filing sculptures in the last pic - if you were up here you'd be a shoo-in for a Canada Council grant ! :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

it will be fun to pull the lever and hopefully watch all those filings just fall in the trash can.
and pick them up again and see if any different pattern...
If it doesn't, Houston we have a problem

hours and hours of cleaning, grinding, drilling, priming and on a few pulleys, final painting.
My welder friend went fishing instead on this holiday weekend but we are likely to get together next weekend to start
welding this thing. Was told on welding forum to drill ends of cracks, learned something good here.

Next is a trip to Tractor Supply with my bags of old bolts and hardware and will replace what I can.

these pics show the remarkable abuse this poor deck got. In two places hardware was ripped right off, and the welds held, the metal ripped. Just like
the glue will hold but the wood will fail on a properly glued joint. I would so love to know what event did this damage.
Luckily a thick reinforcing plate of steel will go over these broken areas but I need to weld the bottom layer for rigidity and strength too. Just anything under that thick
plate is not going to get my best finish job for sure.

The pulleys are now finish painted and ready to go on the spindle top splines. This is where I had a real problem getting one to slide on.

 

[daugen]

today was my very first day stick welding and all I can say is I'm glad I did not burn myself, electrocute myself, or burn my barn down.
All good starts. The work, geez it looked horrible. I practiced on small pieces and that went pretty well. Then I went to the deck and it dissolved in front of
me. I was purposely running small 3/32 7014 at 90amps to not overwhelm the crack and boy that sure didn't work. Made a serious mess of it.
the good news is one hundred percent of this is covered in fresh metal, some quite thick, so this training ground of mine isn't going to be seen.
I think Bondo is going to be my friend. A heavy reinforcing plate goes over most of this area; this is the cracked and brutalized lower level. I didn't want to put the
reinforcing plate back on without fixing the cracked deck underneath.

I'm going to put these photos in the welding forum to give those guys a good laugh.
My first weld...could have been worse. Maybe.

tomorrow morning with fresh eyes I'm going to redo this; need to hold the rod further away for sure, try to deposit more material and be more careful about
burning through.

 

[aczlan]

I'm not sure on the amperage difference by rod type, but with 6011 on AC, I would be running in the neighborhood of 50 to 70 amps to fill that in. More and you will blow through it.

Aaron Z

 

[daugen]

I'm not sure on the amperage difference by rod type, but with 6011 on AC, I would be running in the neighborhood of 50 to 70 amps to fill that in. More and you will blow through it.

Aaron Z

the rod box said 80 to 90 and I had it at 84. Any less and it was hard to start. I have lots of 7014, need to write down what else I have stored.
Including one box that the end had opened, moisture had gotten in
and it looked like a bunch of rusted sparklers in there. Not sure they are much good.